Bullz-Eye Blog » Mike Ehrmantrauthttp://blog.bullz-eye.com
men's lifestyle blog, blog for guysFri, 31 Jul 2015 16:00:41 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.3The Light from the TV Shows: A Chat with Jonathan Banks (“Breaking Bad”)http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2012/08/30/a-chat-with-jonathan-banks-breaking-bad/
http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2012/08/30/a-chat-with-jonathan-banks-breaking-bad/#commentsFri, 31 Aug 2012 02:05:25 +0000http://blog.bullz-eye.com/?p=18568You may or may not know this, but…Jonathan Banks is basically just as awesome as the character he plays on “Breaking Bad.” True story. I know this to be true because he proved it handily when he gave my daughter the chance to interview him in the midst of an interview he and I were doing for the Onion AV Club.

Funnily enough, though, while he and I clearly built a bit of a bond as a result of his conversation with myself and my daughter, we’d never actually met until earlier this month, when he attended the Television Critics Association Awards with some of his fellow “Breaking Bad” cast and crew members. I was giddy when I spotted him at the event, and I strolled over and said, “You and I have never met, but you’ve chatted with my daughter…”

His jaw dropped, and he said, “Son of a bitch.” Then a smile appeared on his face, he stuck out his hand, and he said, “How are you, brother? And how’s that little girl of yours doing? Oh, man, it is so good to finally meet you. Is your wife here? I need to say ‘hello’ to her, too!”

Yep. Jonathan Banks is awesome. Indeed, he’s so awesome that, although I couldn’t imagine he wouldn’t be up for doing a quick interview in the wake of Mike’s storyline coming to a conclusion on “Breaking Bad,” I still felt obliged to go through the proper channels to chat with him. As such, I sent a formal request to his manager, even as I admitted, “I realize there’s a pretty strong chance that he’s just going to say, ‘Well, if he knows how to get in touch with me, then tell him to get in touch with me, for chrissakes, but even so.”

Within 24 hours, I had a direct email from Mr. Banks, simply saying, “Call anytime.” And when I asked if he had a preferred time, explaining that I’d have an empty house from 8:30 AM EST onward because of my wife and daughter heading out to get their hair done, he said to call him at 8:30 AM EST…which was a little surprising, given that I knew he lived in California, but damned if he didn’t answer the phone right away.

Bullz-Eye: Well, aren’t you the early riser…

Jonathan Banks: Got a golf game to get to, brother. [Laughs.]

BE: Oh, sure, you’ve got all the time in the world to golf now.

JB: [Dreamily.] All the time in the world…

BE: And on that note, as far as the last hurrah of Mike Ehrmantraut goes, it was a hell of a way to go out, that’s for sure.

JB: Yeah, it was done well. It was done really well.

BE: Did Vince (Gilligan) give you at least a little bit of advance warning that your end on the series was near?

BE: The way things were going, it seemed almost inevitable that a showdown between Mike and Walt was destined to happen. Did you have that feeling even before Vince told you?

JB: Well, you know, there’s no other way to say it: Mike broke a lot – a lot – of his own rules in the end, so you knew damned well it was not going to come to a good end. [Laughs.]

BE: In truth, it seemed that we started to see a different Mike than the one we first met once Walt started to flex his muscles against Gus early last season.

JB: Yeah, but, you know, I don’t know what to say other than that the wonderful writers – and I do mean wonderful writers – what they give me, that’s what I do.

BE: They certainly gave you a lot this season. We learned more about Mike than we ever had before, including, at long last, his last name. Do you happen to know the story behind where Ehrmantraut came from?

JB: Absolutely. Vince’s love, Holly, who’s also a friend of mine, it’s the last name of one of Holly’s girlfriends in Virginia.

BE: In the midst of all of the new info we got on your character, we also got to see you interact with Dean Norris for a change.

BE: As far as this past week’s episode, it was a sure sign of just how worried Mike was that he was willing to leave his granddaughter behind.

JB: Oh, yeah. And that, for me, was…I really, really, really… [Hesitates.] That was one I thought I just…I mean, leaving her in the park? The only way I can justify that as an actor, or that Mike could justify it through me, is that they are the police, it is a safe spot that’s…y’know, she’s not being abandoned by a railroad track somewhere. And he must take the leap that she’ll be taken care of and be safe and be put back with her mother.

BE: For your final scene with Aaron Paul, did you actually receive the instruction that you were to look like you were on the verge of hugging him? Because not that Mike’s really what you’d call a hugger, but it looked like you were on the verge of that.

JB: Yeah, y’know, that’s…well, first of all, Will, getting down to those last days, that was some tough duty, because I love li’l Aaron, and I truly… [Hesitates.] That was an emotional parting. When we were running lines, it was all of a sudden for the first time when I realized, “As far as the show, this is it. This is the last time we’re ever gonna see each other.” So that was tough. That was tough.

BE: Understandably so. The bond that you guys built, particularly over the course of last season, was pretty profound.

JB: Well, you know, and that’s on the screen. And the funny thing – or not so funny – is that Aaron and I are really dear friends, and we had such a good time riding around in that car together that all the stuff began to come easy. The protection of the character, Mike’s protection of Jesse…all the lines began to blur because of the emotional feelings I had for Aaron, you know? [Laughs.]

BE: I’ve read that everyone wore black armbands for your last day of filming.

JB: Yeah.

BE: You really scored a perfect parting line.

JB: Yeah, y’know, offhand, when I first saw the word “fuck,” I thought, “Aw, I don’t know, would Mike use the word ‘fuck’ there?” I mean, they get one “fuck” a season and they gave it to me, so it was such an honor, but at the same time… “Would he really say that?” And then, of course, because Mike doesn’t actually say “fuck” – it’s bleeped – so it becomes even more profound, I thought.

BE: And the sun was just gorgeous for that final shot. Just a beautiful shot.

JB: [Sighs.] I know. That’s Slovis. Look at Michael Slovis. And Steve Litecky, who does the lighting and makes sure that everything’s perfect. But, you know, it was the end of the day. We were running out of light, Will. There was no more light. It was done. It was toast.

BE: How difficult was it for you to sit on the knowledge that your time on the show was coming to an end?

JB: I don’t know. And that’s as good an answer as I can give you. I don’t know. I have such mixed feelings, because from the time I knew… [Hesitates.] I guess the biggest reaction I had was, “What a great role this has been. What a wonderful gift that Vince Gilligan gave to me.” And that’s truly how I looked at it. Now, as time got closer, it was hard! It was hard going through the season and knowing that…I have a good time when I go to work, so I’m going to work, having a good time, having a good time…and all of a sudden, that day is there. And it was an emotional day out there, my friend.

BE: It’s pretty much universally accepted that your “No Half Measures” speech is one of Mike’s greatest moments, but are there any other such moments that you hold up as personal favorites?

JB: No. Not off the top of my head. [Hesitates.] No, y’know, here are my favorite moments: from the time I came on the show in the last episode of Season 2 to the time I fell over and died. Those are my favorite moments. But, yes, the “Half Measures” speech really, really sticks out. Will, I can’t tell you what a joy this has been to do. A joy.

BE: So what do you have on the horizon, aside from golf?

JB: Well, I’m memorizing lines this morning for a film, and I just did a small film for a friend. You know, my life is what it’s always been for 45 years: “Where’s the next job coming from?” [Laughs.]

BE: Any talk to you returning to “Modern Family”?

JB: Nah. I mean, y’know, what am I gonna do? I was dying of cancer the last time, so if you see me again, I’ll be probably be dead.

BE: Hey, look how many seasons Walter White’s gone with cancer.

JB: [Laughs.] That’s true. Were it only that way in the real world…

]]>http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2012/08/30/a-chat-with-jonathan-banks-breaking-bad/feed/2Breaking Bad 5.07: Say My Namehttp://blog.bullz-eye.com/2012/08/27/breaking-bad-5-07-say-my-name/
http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2012/08/27/breaking-bad-5-07-say-my-name/#commentsTue, 28 Aug 2012 00:05:54 +0000http://blog.bullz-eye.com/?p=18358SPOILER WARNING: This post will appear every Monday following a new episode of “Breaking Bad.” It is intended to be read after seeing the show’s latest installment as a source of recap and analysis. As such, all aspects and events that have occurred up to and including the episode discussed are fair game.

Classic Coke

In my post for last week’s episode, “Buyout,” I concocted a theory that Walt’s plan (“everybody wins”) would have something to do with creating some kind of fake or ersatz meth. It was based on a few small clues: Hank’s comparison of Miracle Whip and mayonnaise, a news report about a kelp-based caviar knock-off, and Jesse’s comment about “truth in advertising, yo.” Well, it turns out I was part right, which is pretty good for a show as unpredictable as “Breaking Bad.”

See, it wasn’t Walt making the knock-off, it was Declan, the big-time meth dealer the guys met with. Declan and his crew have been aping Walt’s product for some time. They switched to a P2P cook and even started using blue food coloring to make their customers think they had the real deal. But in reality, they were only getting a product that was 70 percent pure, nothing compared to Walter’s 99.1 percent. “It’s grade school tee-ball versus the New York Yankees,” Walt explains, “yours is some tepid off-brand cola. What I’m making is classic Coke.” Incredulous, Declan replies that all he has to do is kill Walt right there, and poof, no more competition, no more Coke. It’s only Walt asking if he “really wants to live in a world without Coca-cola” that stops him. Originally, Declan wanted to buy all that methylamine to put Heisenberg out of business. Instead, he ended up buying major stock.

All this is directly related to another revelation from last week’s episode, that Walt’s motivations are not quite so noble as they once were. He is no longer the guy who got a bad rap his whole life, up to and including getting lung cancer, struggling to obtain some sort of safety net for his family ($737,000 to be exact). That is, assuming he ever was. Nowadays it’s about being Heisenberg, “the best meth cook in America.” It’s about the “empire business,” and proving to everyone that looked down at him that he really is superior.

This notion was given further credence when Jesse showed up to get his share of the money. Prior to that point, Walt had simply brushed Jesse aside each time he brought up that he, like Mike, would be getting out of the meth business. When it comes down to it, and Jesse (finally) sticks to his guns, Walt is entirely unable to understand why he would want to quit. “Being the best at something is a rare thing,” Walt says, “You don’t just toss something like that away.” But Jesse doesn’t care about being the best, or all the money he stands to make. He even walks away from the $5 million he’s owed, and still it simply does not register with Walt that anyone could not care about the things that motivate him. Heisenberg is always calm and collected because things always go his way. For him, “it’s all there, black and white, clear as crystal.” He’s an emotionless meth-making machine. But as Jesse turns his back, Heisenberg’s robotic calm evaporates, only instead of printing error messages and beeping “does not compute,” he screams “If you leave you get nothing! [You lose! Good day sir!]”

When Todd becomes Walt’s new cooking partner, it’s clear that all is not well in the Kingdom of Heisenberg. However, Todd’s willingness to learn (studying his notes during a break) and refusing to discuss his cut of the money until he’s earned it pleases Walt. At the very least he’s got someone with similar ambitions, and who’s already proven that he will do whatever is necessary to succeed (like, you know, shooting an innocent child). “I don’t need you to be Antoine Lavoisier,” Walt says, “What I do need is your full attention. Listen and apply yourself.” Of course, Todd was never going to get a reference to an 18th century scientist (“the father of modern chemistry”), which just goes to show that Walt’s words weren’t meant to reassure anyone but himself.

The End of Ehrmantraut

I’ll say it again, this entire season (and series) has been about the transformation of mild-mannered Walter White into criminal mastermind Heisenberg. There’s just one problem with this scenario though: the first episode of the season showed what appeared to be a subdued Walter returning from exile in New Hampshire to buy an M60 in a Denny’s. Heisenberg’s little “say my name” tirade was his apex, his “high-water mark.” Killing Mike was the first move in the opposite direction, “the place where the wave broke and rolled back.”

When Walt tells Jesse that no one else needs to get hurt because they are now in control of their business, Jesse responds with “You keep saying that and it’s bullshit every time.” And how correct he was. Almost directly after letting those words drip out of his mouth, Walter up and kills Mike essentially for hurting his feelings. Walter has left more than a couple bodies in his wake as he rose to the top, but this is the first one that was entirely without purpose. Walt’s decision to kill Mike was made based on pure emotion, the exact pride and ego Mike had just finished scolding him about.

Just after firing the killing shot, Walt had a look on his face that we haven’t seen in a while. It was one of fear, of surprise. It represented a lack of understanding. For the first time in a while, things didn’t go exactly according to Heisenberg’s plans. After working so hard for so long to be “in control,” he couldn’t even control himself. Walt follows Mike down to the river, and immediately recognizes that the whole thing could have been avoided, as he could have gotten the names of Mike’s “guys” from Lydia. Mike responds, “shut the fuck up and let me die in peace.” A badass ending for a badass character.

The fact is Walt can still get the names from Lydia, and he will, based on the sneak peek into next week’s episode, the last of the summer. To save himself, Walt needs to do something about the guys in jail, and I’d be willing to bet Todd’s “prison connections” are going to come back into play.

]]>http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2012/08/27/breaking-bad-5-07-say-my-name/feed/0Breaking Bad 5.06: Buyouthttp://blog.bullz-eye.com/2012/08/20/breaking-bad-5-06-buyout/
http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2012/08/20/breaking-bad-5-06-buyout/#commentsMon, 20 Aug 2012 20:43:35 +0000http://blog.bullz-eye.com/?p=18180SPOILER WARNING: This post will appear every Monday following a new episode of “Breaking Bad.” It is intended to be read after seeing the show’s latest installment as a source of recap and analysis. As such, all aspects and events that have occurred up to and including the episode discussed are fair game.

The Aftermath: Bikes, Bodies, and Hydrofluoric Acid

Alright, we’ve got to talk about the cold open, again. Everything about it was fantastic: the near complete lack of dialogue paired with that ominous music, the methodical way Walter, Todd, and Mike, go about decomposing the bike (and the body), all of it. But that’s not really what I want to discuss.

Rather, let’s think about what it says about the quality of the show and the way it has shaped the thinking of its viewers that we don’t need dialogue explaining what’s going on. This week’s “Story Sync” tells us that the young boy’s body is the fifth dissolved in hydrofluoric acid thus far. The first time Walt and Jesse did it, after Walt strangled Krazy-8 way back in the first season, they spent nearly a whole episode weighing their options and ultimately completing their task. At that point, killing and disposing of a human being was still something of a big deal for Walter, and as a result, the viewer. Now, not so much. The guys weren’t so adept at the task back then either, recall Jesse making the mistake of putting aside the plastic bins because he had a perfectly good bathtub. We all know how that ended.

Now, in much the same way the gang (minus Jesse) efficiently and meticulously go about the process of permanent evidence disposal, almost as if it’s routine, we watch them fully expecting and understanding their actions. There is no need for explanation. The fact is at this point, it is routine. That is just what they have to do. They know it, so we know it. They have no qualms with it, so neither do we.

Moving on. When Todd attempts to justify his actions, he says, “It was him or us, and I chose us.” The line was eerily and intentionally reminiscent of what Walt said to justify killing Gale: “When it comes down to you and me versus him… it’s gonna be him.”

Walter, Mike, and Jesse then vote on what to do with Todd. For perhaps the first time ever, Walt and Mike agree on something, and it’s Jesse who’s left out in the cold. It’s decided that the man who will now be forever known as “Ricky Hitler” will be kept close, because they don’t want to pour acid over yet another body nor pay him off and hope he keeps everything to himself. That’s probably a good decision given that when Todd gets in his car, we see he’s held onto a creepy souvenir.

At first, I couldn’t figure out the significance of showing Todd looking at the tarantula in the jar. My first thought was it was meant to show that despite his seemingly nonchalant attitude, Todd really does feel sorry for killing the boy. Perhaps that is part of it, but a show like “Breaking Bad” doesn’t waste a single moment of screen time, and Todd already voiced what I believed to be genuine regret (not necessarily for the murder itself, but for being put in that unfortunate but necessary position). Then it hit me. In a missing person investigation, one of the first things the authorities will do is collect the boy’s prints (likely from his home), so they have something to work with. The old jar o’ spider has the victim’s prints as well as Todd’s, and maybe even another member of the crew as well. That’s my guess anyway. There’s a reason for using a method of complete destruction of any and all evidence. But this time it wasn’t allmthe evidence, and that’s got to have some kind of significance later on.

There is no Walter White. There is only Heisenberg.

This whole season, well, the whole series really, has been about the transformation of “mild-mannered” Walter White into the meth kingpin Heisenberg. This week, we got another piece of a puzzle we didn’t even know we were building, or a glimpse into the psyche of what really drives Walter White.

When Jesse comes to his home, Walter tells him (and us) a bit about his past at Grey Matter. It seems he took a $5000 buyout from the company he named and co-founded, which is now worth “billions, with a b.” Walter now checks Grey Matter’s stock value weekly, still haunted by the decision he made to “sell his childrens’ birthright.”

Part of what made us root for Walter in the beginning was the feeling that despite all the horrible things he was doing, it was for a good cause, or at least out of self-preservation. He was a good man who got a bad rap. Then he got cancer, and as Jesse points out, he wanted to cook meth in order to secure $737,000, which would set up his family for life.

But this new information puts things in a different light and helps explain why Walt tries “so hard to not make five million dollars.” As well his describing that amount as “nothing” and “pennies on the dollar.” And, of course, why he works with an almost animal instinct to burn off his handcuff, steal the methylamine, and calmly tell Mike that everybody can win, you know, with a gun to his head.

At the very least, Heisenberg is no longer working for the well-being of his family, and it puts into question if Walter White ever was. This is a man driven primarily by arrogance and jealousy. Where before he could hide it, it has now consumed every facet of his life. As he tells Jesse at the dinner table, his children are gone and his wife is counting down the days until his cancer returns, “This business is all I have let now. And you want to take it away from me.”

By taking the Grey Matter buyout, Walter gave up the opportunity to prove to the world what he’s known all along: that he’s just plain better than the rest of us. In the pilot, Walt saw the tremendous amount of money to be made by cooking meth during the news report on Hank’s bust. With his introduction to Gus Fring, he saw just how far one can go in the meth business, and learned some lessons about how to get there. There’s no way Walter will take the buyout, to make that same mistake twice. While it seems Mike has forgotten his own advice about “half measures” (how many times has he had a gun to Walt’s head now?), Walt has not. He’s going to make himself forget Grey Matter ever existed. He’s going to make all the money there is to be made. But I believe he has simply come too far. All the money in the world wouldn’t satisfy Heisenberg, and that’s why he’ll go out with the bang that was hinted at in this season’s first scene.

A Few Extra Bits:

I can’t say I’m certain what Walt’s plan is going to be. How can everybody win? He’ll cook by himself and then pay off his partners? But they want their money and they want out. Now. There’s no time for such things. Based on some small hints in this episode, listed below, I’m thinking the plan might have something to do with putting out fake blue meth.

-Over the wire, Mike overhears Hank going about his new responsibilities at the DEA. One of his conversations is about the difference between mayonnaise and its imitation, Miracle Whip.

-The TV report just prior to the one about the boy Todd shot was about a caviar knock-off made of kelp.

-Jesse’s lines about frozen lasagna during the (hilariously uncomfortable) dinner scene. The food never looks like it does on the box. “It’s like yo, whatever happened to truth in advertising?”

One last thing: after that news report, Walt tells Jesse that he’s lost sleep over the boy’s death and tells Jesse to go home, saying he will finish the cook on his own. When Jesse returns downstairs Walt is whistling a startlingly upbeat tune, and you can almost see the gears in Jesse’s head start turning. Walt doesn’t care about the dead child. What else has he lied about? Maybe his mind even goes back to his original (and ultimately correct) suspicions that Walt poisoned Brock. Then there’s the imagery, standing outside of the tent listening to Walt whistle, Jesse is quite literally on the outside looking in.

Watch the cast and crew go inside “Buyout” below and follow the writer on Twitter @NateKreichman.